Harry Macklowe returns

Developer Harry Macklowe, who was infamously forced to relinquish nearly his entire real estate empire after a bad $7 billion real estate bet at the height of the market, is getting back in the game. Macklowe, who also lost a business partner in his son, William, as a result of his portfolio’s implosion, now has a new teammate in Prudential Douglas Elliman Chairman Howard Lorber. According to Crain’s, the pair just purchased the defaulted loan on a prime Midtown development site and is planning to build a residential tower there. The vacant, 150,000-square-foot site, at 953-961 First Avenue between 52nd and 53rd streets, was slated to become the Oliver, a luxury rental building by Alexico Group and Steven Elghanayan. But the original developers defaulted on $30.6 million in loans for the project and Bank of America had reportedly begun foreclosure proceedings. Massey Knakal Realty Services had been marketing the note since the summer, and sold to Lorber’s New Valley, which owns 50 percent of Elliman, in October. Macklowe was said to have partnered on the deal. [Crain’s]